Graph visualizing operations.
As a 67 yr old non-techie writer, I have been taking a crash course in Obsidian since I discovered it about a week ago. My first project is to develop a large number of concept definitions (words, basically, with each captured in a unique note). I’m following a specific genus/differentia philosophical model, which anchors concrete “things” (tree, house, red, etc.) to more general categories (plants, buildings, colors, etc.), more detailed things (oak tree, bungalow, crimson, etc.).
The reason I’m doing this is in order to get clearer on how our minds derive intangible concepts (property, value, morality, etc.). Wiki-links capture the relationships well. I’m using tags to specify general subject matter as well as whether a concept is surface-level, a generalization, an extension, or intangible.
Clearly, I’m dealing with a LOT of notes. In order to use this as a learning and teaching tool, I need to somehow influence where the notes show up on the graph. For example, the highest level category is “thing” or “existent.” Ideally, I could cause notes tagged with #Generalization to be pulled toward the top of the graph. This would cause notes such as oak tree → tree → plant → living organism → existent/thing to drift to the top. Likewise, I could have notes tagged with #Extension to be pulled toward the bottom of the graph. So, person → doctor → pediatrician → pediatric oncologist would be pulled toward the bottom. That would cause the whole conceptual structure to become shaped like a sort of jellyfish, with the most detailed extensions hanging at the bottom, and the “surface-level” concrete sorts of concepts floating around in the middle. Further, concepts tagged with #Intangible, etc. might “pull” notes containing them to the right. You get the idea.
This would make the whole structure quite useful for research, teaching, persuasion, and so forth. And that is not to mention helping individuals ensure the content of their minds is tied to reality somehow.
If anyone knows of a way to do this, I would really, really appreciate some pointers. Otherwise, I hope this suggestion makes it into the hopper for future development.